A fascinating, flawed debut, The Great Deception <\/i>is baffling, entertaining, and rich with layers so deep that it takes multiple listens to catch everything going on.<\/p>\n
The work is an honest-to-God progressive rock concept album, a rarity in the current musical landscape, with a story about a bleak future society. Each song is linked with an old commercial from the 1960s, sort of like The Who Sell Out <\/i>but for actual products and without the humor.<\/p>\n
The playing is impressive, avoiding the virtuoso traps so prevalent on other prog rock albums, and although John Crispino is the man in charge, a bevy of musicians back him up, including King Crimson guitarist Trey Gunn and Vanilla Fudge bassist Tim Bogert. The music is at turns ambient noodling, low-end rock and acoustic pop, channeling Pink Floyd, the shorter side of Tool and the Alan Parsons Project. <\/p>\n
Like the more atmospheric works that inspired it, this disc is more about mood and feel, ebb and flow, than a collection of songs. The first few float by in a haze, a collection of keyboards, slow drums and computerized voices, and it\u2019s not until the sarcastic I, Robot<\/i>-inspired \u201cThey\u2019re All Around You\u201d that things really kick in. The songs alternate between this more upbeat approach and the chilled-out haze of \u201cDown On Me,\u201d though many take the latter approach, making this difficult to get through (it\u2019s 68 minutes long) in one sitting without falling asleep.<\/p>\n
Had the disc been trimmed by a few songs, including the insipid closer \u201cMikey Get Your Accordion,\u201d this could have warranted a place with some of the great neo-prog bands of the day. Still, ambition frequently outstrips results in this genre, and Crispino is not to be ignored. Taken in small doses, The Great Deception <\/i>is an impressive, thoughtful piece of work that\u2019s easier to admire than love, though it\u2019s still an impressive debut from a band worth keeping an eye on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":31528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[9172],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-43231","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-seconds-before-landing","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43231"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}